Contentions

Why only kick Maureen Dowd off the McCain campaign plane? At least her stuff is labeled “opinion.”

Fred Barnes is right, the killer moment came when Sarah Palin said: “Can we talk about Afghanistan real quick?”

A helpful guide to Joe Biden’s make believe world of invented facts and out-and-out lies.

John Miller pulls a Marshall McLuhan/Woody Allen and tracks down Lou Cannon, whom Gwen Ifill seemed to accuse of the same bias she possessed. But Cannon says that “I would never have moderated a televised debate involving Reagan—and never did—because it would have been perceived as a conflict of interest by liberals and conservatives alike even though I think I would have been balanced. But perception is very important.” So Ifill got her facts wrong, slurred Cannon, didn’t disclose her conflict, and played the race card. Lovely.

Having spent two weeks bashing cowardly and ignorant lawmakers it is right to applaud a really brave and smart one: Rep. Paul Ryan.

The MSM hates to admit it : they like Sarah Palin and doggone it, she beat the odds and the stereotypes — which, come to think of it, they cooked up. So that would mean she showed them all up and they still like her? This is the wackiest race ever.

Great advice for conservatives: “Republicans must fight (not whine about) media bias at every turn. Marshall the facts. Bypass the media gatekeepers. Don’t play their game, don’t turn the other cheek. Go directly to the people. Be relentless. Be cheerfully ruthless in defense of truth and accuracy. And if debate moderators fail to bring up Ayers or Wright or Rezko or Raines or Born-Alive or Fannie Mae or the Surge, Republicans must bring them up. Don’t concede that they’re somehow off-limits just because the media have been doing everything in their power to ignore them. Let the media dictate the rules of engagement and you lose.” Media bias should be decried — because it is bad for democracy and fundamentally unfair — but it’s not a valid excuse for losing elections.

A new modus operandi for Nancy Pelosi: ““We’re not going to take a bill to the floor that doesn’t have the votes.” What a concept.

I agree that taxes are still a potent issue. But how many voters are aware that, under Barack Obama’s scheme, the effective top marginal rate is headed over 50% and the majority of small businesses will be socked? (That’s assuming only the “rich” get a tax hike.) Well, more after last night’s debate.

I find this take entirely persuasive. Short term tactics by the McCain camp worked beautifully but they were means to an end: developing a comprehensive and persuasive message of his own and critique of the oppositon. That “end” hasn’t come yet and the end of the campaign is growing near.

Charles Krauthamer sums up: “Obama has shown that he is a man of limited experience, questionable convictions, deeply troubling associations (Jeremiah Wright, William Ayers, Tony Rezko) and an alarming lack of self- definition — do you really know who he is and what he believes? Nonetheless, he’s got both a first-class intellect and a first-class temperament. That will likely be enough to make him president.” And of course the good luck to be following a hugely unpopular president. McCain still has a month to provide some “definition” and see if he can cast doubt on that temperament.